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Chatham island endemic, arborescent, Ericaceae. For those who haven't already slammed the add to cart button, these are found only on one small New Zealand coastal island group and boast extremely unique juvenile foliage comparable only to the supreme Dragon Blood Tree (Dracaena draco) from South Africa, thus the heavy metal dragon-leaf name. These spiky tufty columns of leaves eventually develop into trees with a sprawling wind-blown habit and a plethora of blade-like leaves. These are cutting-grown from wild collections made for the Pacific Connections garden project at the Washington Arb. Grows in rich peat or bog areas in habitat so something acidic, loamy and consistently moist should suit it just fine.

Oh ill-fated queen of legend, doomed by prophecy, but glorious and radiant in life. In this Guinevere is rightly given to a bearer of such lovely white flowers. Detractors of the art will complain of browning, and beauty befuffled by rain but don't all things fade in the end. These are seedlings off the rare British cultivar and could theoretically sport a different color but we have had pretty flawless luck thus far in continuing the blushed pallor of a medieval English queen. 

Our first offering of this fairly new species (2009) of leatherwood first described by our friendly neighborhood taxonomist Dr. Aaron Floden of Missouri Botanic. Surprisingly attractive fuzzy oval leaves on a fairly airy shrub. Flowers are diminutive and yellow-green but slightly larger than the more commonly seen Dirca palustris and with a slight sweet fragrance. Let just say it how it is, this is unlikely to be the plant most asked about on garden tours, but it is very charming in its way and wins the approval of the trifecta of myself, Kelly, and Sue a very rare recommendation in its favor. Dirca to me embodies all that is great about Eastern woodlands when seen through the eye of a expatriate of the area. These plants are seed grown from the type locality and the only Kansas population in a range that centers around the Ozarks.